Is it ok for a weapon mod to be made up of loose files instead of ba2 archives?

[kplusa]

Help please! A YouTube reviewer I follow said this weapon mod sucked because it was made up of loose files instead of ba2 archives.

I barely know the difference between them so is it really bad for a weapon mod to be made up of loose files compared to ba2?  What issues could it cause? Should I even care? 

All I've ever heard is that large/complicated mods (above 100mb) should NOT be loose files but the one I linked is pretty small.

[Glitchfinder]

There's going to be a trade-off involved, so I'll break down some of the pros and cons. First off, what benefits do you get from archiving files?

• Archived files load faster due to optimizations in the .BA2 archive format. This is most notable with textures, which have specialized optimizations. As an example, textures that replace NPC faces and skin will often have a significant performance impact if not archived due to longer load times.
• Archived files take up less space on disk, especially when compressed.
• Archived files are easier to manage and track when adding or removing mods, because they are part of a single file that shares the mod's name.This is mostly only relevant to manual installation.

And what benefits do you get from providing loose files?

• Loose files are not subject to crashing caused by the .BA2 archive limit.
• Loose files take priority over archived files and will always win conflicts against archived files.
• Loose files allow for easier picking and choosing of what to use and what to skip. This is mostly only relevant for asset replacers.

Ultimately, for a single weapon there's not going to be a tremendous performance impact either way unless that weapon's assets are poorly made (overly large textures, overly detailed model, etc.) and the weapon is extremely prevalent. So judging it solely based on whether or not the files are archived is a snap judgement that relies heavily on assumptions rather than context.

All that said, judging by the comments and bug reports it may be reasonable to assume the mod has other issues, which are not related to using loose files and are instead more likely to be related to how the weapon was implemented or possibly to conflicts in load order.

[fraquar]

Rule #1:  Assume most Bug reports and comments are made by people that really don't know what they are doing.   Moreover, you have no earthly idea what mods, what changes they have made to their game when they make that comment.

Rule #2:  Always test the mod yourself.    I downloaded it, tested it.    Works fine.    Nothing disappears.

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As for the loose files.    It's not ideal but it will work.   You can either pack it (if you don't have .BA2 issues from running hundreds of other mods) or leave it loose. 

At the end of the day the only real concern about loose files of this size is they ALWAYS win a conflict with a mod that has the same file structure but is packed in a .BA2.

Load order doesn't matter - loose always wins.

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Added:  In fact both Bugs are meaningless.    a)  The cleaver doesn't disappear when I drop it and b) I can unpack it with 7zip.   

Chalk those bugs up to human error of the people reporting them - as is usually (not always) the case.

 

Edited June 23 by fraquar

[Spookychomper]

I have no issues with loose files, in fact I just unpack the MAIN.BA2 and leave the textures in BA2 format as those(from what I know and I'm running over 1000 mods) do not affect the BA2 limit.

[Glitchfinder]

27 minutes ago, Spookychomper said:

I have no issues with loose files, in fact I just unpack the MAIN.BA2 and leave the textures in BA2 format as those(from what I know and I'm running over 1000 mods) do not affect the BA2 limit.

Textures handle the BA2 limit a bit differently. Rather than crashes, you get things like this:

 

I took all of these myself, and it was a very fun experiment and learning experience to break the game this way. If I recall correctly, it still happens on NG but presents itself slightly differently.

[Spookychomper]

hmm, I've never seen those glitches(though I do mostly just unpack the BA2s for weapon mods)

[svenskarav]

I don't think there is much a difference other than one is from the stone age and if i recall having too many loose mods can affect performance sometimes.

Very true in downtown Boston but that was for the console(also 10 years ago) so you might just not have issues at all personally there is not that much of a dif tbh............OH now that i think about it might be how the game read the files so having them loose would affect the games processing or somethin like that idk.

But Yes the mod you linked is very small actually compared to some of the stuff i've seen so it should be fine i wouldn't worry about it unless the game nose dived in fps or if the game crashes consistently.

Edited June 25 by svenskarav
Grammar

[svenskarav]

1 hour ago, Glitchfinder said:

Textures handle the BA2 limit a bit differently. Rather than crashes, you get things like this:

 

I took all of these myself, and it was a very fun experiment and learning experience to break the game this way. If I recall correctly, it still happens on NG but presents itself slightly differently.

huh i get very Early online Video game Cryptid vibes from those pics. Somethin don't feel right *looks into camera* ......it's kinda Eerie tbh.

[Glitchfinder]

1 minute ago, svenskarav said:

huh i get very Early online Video game Cryptid vibes from those pics. Somethin don't feel right *looks into camera* ......it's kinda Eerie tbh.

Yeah, the texture atlas is corrupted. You'll notice that some things are using the wrong textures (the stairs in the last screenshot have blast radius as a glow map, for example) while other things have outright corrupted textures. It's super neat and very variable, because it depends on how far over the limit you go as well as the order in which textures were loaded.

[svenskarav]

That's Pretty neat Actually.